The Sagebrush Spot turns one year old

One year older and wiser too!

Ok, maybe not so much on the wiser part. Either way, today marks the one year anniversary of the first post to make its way onto this fair website, setting a standard of mediocrity that still lives on today! The idea for starting this thing had been in the works for a while at that time, but finally after breaking down just how poorly Dave Baldwin's offenses had done in the 4th quarter at that point last year, it was impossible to resist. Then somehow that team became the kings of 4th quarter dramatics. But hey, if talking sports and solving problems is all this website accomplishes, that's fine by me.

So here we are, with 209 total posts, somewhere around 125,000 words typed and 105,554 total page views in year one. Also worth noting that the Utah State football team has a total record of 11-3 since SagebrushSpot.com was born (fist pump). Been a fun run so far, and hopefully gets even more fun with basketball looking primed for a return to glory this year too.

Thanks again to everyone for the support! Excited to keep this train rolling!!!

That's WACtastic!! Polls and awards are out!

The Western Athletic Conference released its preseason polls and all-conference honors today, giving Utah State just about the same level of hype that most of us expected to see.

Nabbing 15 of a 25 first place votes, the Aggies were picked as the favorite to win the conference by the media, with New Mexico State, Denver, Louisiana Tech and Idaho rounding out the top half of the projected standings.

The coaches left me scratching my head a little bit, but since five of them are total n00bs to this whole WAC thing, I suppose I can give them a bit of a pass on duffing this one. Utah State and New Mexico State shared the first place votes at an even 5-5 split, but at some point on another coach's ballot, they put USU a notch lower than the bad Aggies. So technically, NMSU gets the nod as the favorite in the coaches poll, but like I said, n00bs all over this bitch.

It's pretty much tradition at this point for a Utah State player to be picked as the WAC's preseason Player of the Year, with five of the last six preseason polls giving that nod to an Aggie by either the coaches or the media. This year's guy was the no-brainer pick with Preston Medlin getting the nod by both the coaches and media as preseason Player of the Year.

Mid-Monday links - 10/22

That's a whole lot of Links!!!

This has been way too long since doing this, and that's my bad. There's plenty of love to be spread on any given Monday, so let's go ahead and spread it!!

• Kyle Goon gives a recap on Saturday's basketball scrimmage over at the Aggieville Blog, which I guess will soon be his alone once he stops splitting carries with the old guy...
• Speaking of the old guy, Tony Jones is still absolutely killing it with USU football coverage, painful as it may be to see him tweeting about Ute basketball. But let's be honest, we all know where his heart still is with basketball in the Beehive State. Tony still cranked out two separate stories in the past few days on USU cornerbacks Nevin Lawson and Will Davis. He also recapped Saturday's 41-7 win over New Mexico State.
• Brad Rock over at the Deseret News talks about two different groups of Aggies heading in very different directions.
• Kraig Williams gives his own recap of Saturday's blowout, also for the D-News.
• And don't forget about Tavin Stucki, giving his take on the win over NMSU.
• Utah State Hockey opened its home schedule this past weekend with a pair of wins over Arizona State. Sean O'Sullivan gives the rundown for The Utah Statesman on the hockey team's 8-0 start to the season.
• The AggieZone makes its debut with a detailed recap of all the homecoming week festivities.
• Chris Cooley is a Washington Redskin once again!
• Nick Diaz was named the WAC's Special Teams Player of the Week after nailing a pair of long field goals on Saturday.
• Oscar Molina-Sanchez might be out with injury, but that didn't keep Megan Allen from telling his story for USU Athletics Media Relations.

Hopefully didn't forget anyone, but if I did, let me know via comment, e-mail or Twitter and I'll get it on there.

Enough reading this though... Go read everyone else's stuff today. 

Good Aggies 41, bad Aggies 7

It's funny how a year ago, reaching bowl eligibility was as big of news we've seen for Utah State football in years. This time around, it feels much more like everyone is waiting to see just how high this program can go this season.

With a blowout game like this one, there's not a whole ton to say. Utah State came out and took care of business from the start, and really wasted no time doing so.

It took all of one play for Kerwynn Williams to take a screen pass 76-yards for a touchdown.

Next drive out, USU took a bit longer to score, but still reached the end zone eventually on another big play. That time it was Chuck Jacobs with one of those "Bitch, get off me" type of moments as he and the NMSU defended battled for the ball. Defender fell down, Jacobs made the catch, 14-0 good guys.

The first Aggie drive of the 2nd quarter was another one play drive for 76 yards, this time with Chuckie Keeton breaking out for the big play on the ground.

DEFENSE
Didn't seem much like the defense had a real sense of urgency Saturday, and who can really blame them? They took care of business when they needed to, and that's what really matters.

It didn't seem like USU was blitzing a whole ton, which is alright in these games you know you're going to win. As much as we would have loved to see 14 sacks this week, settling for just a 34-point win will suffice.

Still, it seems like this defense is better at defending the pass when they send some more guys on the pass rush rather than committing to coverage. This is going to be especially crucial against Louisiana Tech, where nobody seems to be able to cover against them. Best bet there will probably be to never give them any time to throw. Obviously easier said than done, but it's something to keep in mind for that game.

KICKING
Can't help but have a whole lot of "what ifs" after seeing Nick Diaz nail 53-yard and 48-yard field goals on Saturday. I'm going to trust that Josh Thompson really did outplay everyone else in practice to earn the job, but after seeing Diaz kick on Saturday, the gap couldn't have been wide enough to keep Diaz out of seeing action until the eighth game of the year.

If Diaz can be at all dependable in the kicking game, especially from 45 yards an out, that could end up being a difference maker in other games this year.

NOTES

• Kerwynn Williams isn't going to stop this reign of terror on the WAC. His numbers to finish this season are going to be pretty eye-popping. Another great game by him.
• Kelvin Lee with a solid showing in garbage time (5 carries for 46 yards). He's gong to have a much bigger role next season, so it's refreshing to see encouraging signs from him there.
• 21 first downs allowed to NMSU... That's not good.
• Kyler Fackrell adds to his legend with a blocked field goal Saturday to go along with eight tackles.
• Will Davis finally holds on to an interception!!! And it was a big one too coming in the end zone. Solid return too on that play. More of these please! Also, solid work on two tackles for loss.
• Tavaris McMillian looks like he's finally turning things on too. Only four tackles, but a pass break-up and a sack make for a solid afternoon for him.
• Great games again by both Zach Vigil and Jake Doughty. These guys both came here as walk-ons and are second and third leading tacklers on the best defense USU has seen in generations. Incredible what these two have made for themselves at USU.
• USU scores again on its first possession of the 3rd quarter (pumps fist).
• 82-3... That's the combined scoring in the 1st quarter of games this year for Utah State... Unreal.
• 45-20 is USU's scoring advantage in the 4th quarter of games this year. Last year the Aggies got outscored 94-89 in the 4th quarter, and most of those games were close ones that didn't have backups getting their cracks at playing time like we've seen in this year's blowouts.
• And while we're comparing this year to last year a little bit, the Aggies have 30 sacks already in 2012. The 2011 team only had 25 total. 

Player of the Game: Chuckie Keeton

The kid just keeps on getting better. Keeton completed 16-of-26 attempts for 257 yards and two touchdowns through the air. On the ground, he racked up 81 yards and two more touchdowns. The numbers speak for themselves, but even above that, he was just calm and in control for the entire game Saturday.

Football: Highs, Lows, and I Don't Knows - 10/16

After last week was heavy on the lows, this week will be the exact opposite. Let's get right at it!!

HIGHS

Defensive line - Talk about bouncing back! Seven tackles for loss, six sacks and really just an all-around dominating performance. With the exception of the last 10 minutes of the second quarter Saturday, USU's defensive line disrupted everything the SJSU offense wanted to do.

Offensive playmakers - Kerwynn Williams might have been the big standout with his three touchdowns, but everyone is deserving of the props. Chuckie Keeton was on point with his throws all game and every one of Matt Austin, Chuck Jacobs, Travis Van Leeuwen and Kellen Bartlett had big catches in different spots, with all of them but Bartlett reaching the end zone. If scoring points against WAC defenses was at all a concern, these guys squashed that on Saturday.

Kyler Fackrell - Just unreal what this kid is doing... More on that here though.

Freshman Fackrell already playing like a superstar

Usually with freshman, the talk at this point of the year is about them showing flashes of excellence that gives a bright spot for the future. Freshman usually have some holes in their game that need patching up, and it seems that for each standout performance, there's another one that is more or less a no-show.

Kyler Fackrell hasn't played this season like a freshman. Even though he's still technically a freshman linebacker, Fackrell has already stepped his game up to a veteran level midway through this season.

Saturday's game at San Jose State was the second consecutive game with 10+ tackles for Fackrell and his third double-digit tackle game of the season. Throw in his two sacks, a pass break-up, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and the fact that his performance was easily the best statistical performance in the conference this weekend, it was a no-brainer for Fackrell to repeat as the WAC's Defensive Player of the Week. And to make things even more impressive, all three of Fackrell's double-digit tackle games have come in big ones against Utah, BYU and San Jose State. 

Sack-religious: Aggies ride school-record sack total to 49-27 win

After a 6-3 loss where the USU offense wasn't able to get much of anything going and the defense didn't log a single tackle for loss, there was plenty of redemption to be had for Utah State. The victims of that redemption turned out to be the Spartans of San Jose State.

In one of the WAC's biggest conference games this season, the Aggies got everything back on track, and might have even cranked things up to previously unseen levels, showing more what this team is capable of.

Things didn't start off so great for the Aggies, allowing SJSU to put together a 12-play, 67-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, and the first points allowed by USU in the first quarter all season.

USU bounced back strong though with a 13-play, 86-yard drive of its own to go up 7-3.

Then the Aggies struck again. 14-3
And again. 21-3
And one more time. 28-3.

Utah State mercilessly dominated an entire quarter of football, and on both sides of the ball. Offensively, they seemed to be doing whatever they wanted, and on defense the Aggies completely dominated the line of scrimmage.